SURFACE, TEXTILE AND ILLUSTRATIVE DESIGN

Mr D’Arcy

Yesterday I attended a talk on the D’Arcy Thompson Museum, I’ve been to the museum for some drawings on birds for my project and found it very interesting. The Museum is crammed with many specimens to looks at, including animal skeletons of all variations, from rabbits to hippos. They have stuffed animals on display to recreate the size and form of the species and also many drawings and notes explaining the developmental stages in which they have evolved.

We were shown various images and photographs relating to D’Arcy’s work as an evolutionary biologist. Here is a photograph of D’Arcy’s old museum before it was relocated and re-furbished courtesy of University of Dundee website,

I was very interested to hear that many artists have used D’Arcy as inspiration for their own art work; a few examples were given such as illustrator Lauren Gentry with her detailed black and white drawings including a character which may well be D’Arcy himself catching specimens. I love the work that has went into this particular drawing, I find the sense of quirkiness is effective and like the cartoon form that it has taken. The range of size is also interesting, that some animals are block shapes this highlights the detail more in the others.

Another examle given was photographer Susan Derges who used the mathematical form and studys that D’Arcy created as an influence in her work.

Below is a photograph Derges took using light and tadpoles in a jar,

I find it very exciting that all of these radically different concepts have steamed from the findings of D’Arcy’s work, I am hopeful that I can use the museum to my advantage and allow it to help me with my own project.

Here are some bird drawings i created while visiting D’Arcy’s museum on campus,

I also managed to take some photographs of coloured feathers to help me with my colour theme,